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At our the preceding Ministry Days preceding the UU General Assembly,
ableist language was used in worship to the extent that UUMA Board
Member Josh Pawelek issued this response:

Clearly there is a problem with ableism in our public
presentation. Public statements, music, stories and metaphors that
perpetuate ableism have been hurtful to colleagues. As with any
oppression, this ableism likely runs deeper than our public
presentation. I remain grateful to all those who are willing to call it
to our attention, and I am deeply sorry that such calling is still
necessary. (The full response is here.)
The most prominent example of ableist language in our movement, however, is our social justice arm: Standing on the Side of Love. And before you say, "It's just a metaphor," I invite you to watch this and read this
by UU minister Theresa Soto. The point here is not to convince you
that ableist metaphors are a problem. The point is that we often think,
even if it is …

My dear colleague (and formerly my minister) Lynn Ungar has written a thoughtful piece about the Brock Tuner rape case on Patheos. I appreciate her deep thinking and opportunity to look at the situation differently, but I have to respectfully disagree with her conclusions.

First, like Lynn Ungar, I want to see large changes in our prison industrial system. I believe too many nonviolent offenders are given long sentences and this is to the detriment of our society. I want to see people getting rehab, not jail time, for drug use. But there are a few groups of people I'm willing to see get long prison sentences. And one of those groups is rapists. There are cases where I feel bad for a criminal who will have the
rest of their life affected. Brock Turner isn't one of them.

I'm not a survivor of rape, but I've lived with the aftermath. In 1995-6 as a graduate student at the University of Georgia, I lived with two other female students, one of whom I hadn't kn…

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Landrum is a Unitarian Universalist minister, artist, writer, parent, and justice advocate. The opinions expressed here are solely her own, and do not represent the views of the church or any other organization she serves.